The standard slicing machine has a table along whose upper surface the elongated foodstuff to be sliced is slid toward an edge of the table. A blade is passed along this edge to cut off the projecting end of the foodstuff. The foodstuff can be advanced slowly or in steps while the blade is reciprocated across the edge to cut a succession of thin slices from the foodstuff.
In order to automate this process it is known to provide such a machine with a feed that automatically advances the foodstuff longitudinally toward the edge. This feed typically is a driven belt or array of rollers, or even two belts or roller arrays that grip the foodstuff. Such an arrangement has the considerable disadvantage that the foodstuff which here constitutes the workpiece is engaged at a distance from the edge which is at least equal to the radius of curvature of the furthest downstream roller or pulley. This means that the end of each foodstuff strand will be sloppily sliced and might even fall out of the machine.
In addition such a machine must normally be carefully reset whenever the foodstuff thickness changes much. Furthermore, although it is possible to feed foodstuffs of the same thickness one directly following the other, it is necessary to completely slice the foodstuff in process before the machine can be reset and the thicker or thinner foodstuff can be fed. This results in wasteful down time for the machine.